COLUMBIA, S.C. — Two parents are behind bars in connection to their four-year-old daughter's death. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said she died as a result of child abuse.
"There's a difference between disciplining a child and abusing a child," Richland County sheriff Leon Lott said.
On Thursday of last week, four-year-old Hope Fields was taken to Prisma Health Children's Hospital. Deputies said she suffered three cardiac arrests, severe burns, and a fractured femur. She was placed on life support for two days before dying from her injuries.
"The details of this case are enough to rock anybody to their core I've meticulously reviewed the details of this case, and we have ruled out all other manors of death. The death will be ruled as a homicide," Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford said.
Sheriff Lott said Hope's father, 34-year-old Wilbur Fields, admitted to punishing the child for wetting her pants.
"Hope's father had put her in scalding water as punishment for going to the bathroom in her pants," he said.
Hope's mother, 32-year-old FiFi Fields, has also been charged in connection with her death. Investigators said this all happened at an apartment off of Smallwood Road.
"It's traumatic; I mean, it's awful somebody would do that to a four-year-old I mean any child but a four-year-old, especially someone so innocent," Rusty Jeffers, a neighbor in the area, said.
Sheriff Lott became emotional during the news conference while talking about when Hope was in the hospital.
"She was taken off of life support and her parents wasn't there; our people were there our three investigators," he said. "They didn't want Hope to leave this world by herself."
Both parents have been charged with homicide by child abuse and neglect. They are being held at the Richland County jail.
Three other children who were in the home at the time of the incident have been placed in emergency protective custody with the South Carolina Department of Social Services.